Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Shostakovich, Dmitri

(Encyclopedia)Shostakovich, Dmitri dyĭmēˈtrē shŏstŏkôˈvĭch [key], 1906–75, Russian composer, b. St. Petersburg. Shostakovich studied at the Leningrad Conservatory (1919–25). The early success of his Fi...

plainsong

(Encyclopedia)plainsong or plainchant, the unharmonized chant of the medieval Christian liturgies in Europe and the Middle East; usually synonymous with Gregorian chant, the liturgical music of the Roman Catholic C...

Salem, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Salem. 1 City (1990 pop. 38,091), seat of Essex co., NE Mass., on an inlet of Massachusetts Bay; inc. 1629. Its once famous harbor has silted up. Salem has electronic, leather, and machinery industrie...

cannibalism

(Encyclopedia)cannibalism kănˈĭbəlĭzəm [key] [Span. caníbal, referring to the Carib], eating of human flesh by other humans. The charge of cannibalism is a common insult, and it is likely that some alleged c...

Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da

(Encyclopedia)Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da äˌmārēˈjē [key], 1571–1610, Italian painter. His surname, Caravaggio, came from his birthplace. After an apprenticeship in Milan, he arrived (1592) in Rome w...

Roberts, John Glover, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Roberts, John Glover, Jr., 1955–, American public official, 17th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (2005–), b. Buffalo, N.Y., grad. Harvard (B.A. 1976, J.D. 1979). He clerked (1980–81) for...

Tieck, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Tieck, Ludwig lo͝otˈvĭtkh tēk [key], 1773–1853, German writer. In his youth he led the transition from Sturm und Drang to romanticism, writing with W. H. Wackenroder Phantasien über die Kunst (...

Simmel, Georg

(Encyclopedia)Simmel, Georg gāˈôrk zĭmˈəl [key], 1858–1918, German philosopher and sociologist. At the universities of Berlin and Strasbourg he was an influential lecturer. Basing his social philosophy on a...

Fay, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Fay, Frank, 1870–1931, and W. G. Fay, 1872–1947, brothers, both Irish actors. The Fay brothers formed the Irish National Theatre, an amateur group founded on the conviction that only Irish actors ...

Joel, book of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Joel, prophetic book of the Bible. It is a collection of the oracles of an otherwise unknown prophet, dated variously from the 9th to the 3d cent. b.c., though a date in c.400 b.c. is likely. A locust...